Perfect Chemistry
by ShinyShiny9
Summary: It's back to school for Rouge, and she's not happy. A bat's got better things to do with her time! But what will happen when someone steals her heart? Could she learn to love, or will she continue to hate . . . forensic analysis?
1. Chapter 1

**Brackets. **

**T****here are brackets. **

**In the character list. **

**W****HY are there brackets in my character list?! This is unconscionable! Something must be done! Let me get my broom. }:[**

**Okay, okay, so it's romance. Just a little. Just enough to reach the point where you can't deny that it's a pairing, or brush it off as collateral to an adventure plot. Perhaps hereby I forfeit all my dreams of ever becoming a writer of merit, at least in the eyes of the illuminati, but alas, it is so. If any of the regulars from Kelviniana are lurking out there, have at it; I shake my fist at thee in defiance. Thusly. :P**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic and Co. Wish I could own G.U.N. headquarters, though. Love that place. Tons of plot potential. **

**Anyway!**

* * *

"What do you _mean,_ I have to?!" demanded Rouge.

"You should know, you were at the briefing too," said Shadow wearily.

"What do you expect me to do, pay attention? I work here for the action, not the pleasant speeches."

Shadow rolled his eyes and continued packing equipment. Team Dark had been preparing for a mission when the discussion started, but if Rouge expressed disinterest in the topic he wasn't about to waste his breath explaining it. Rouge quickly grew irritated with his silence.

"Come _on_ already, what did they say?"

At last Omega relented instead.

"Those in charge at G.U.N. have decided that too many of the missions involve a need for forensic assessment; sending the evidence to an external laboratory is no longer cost-effective. They wish to educate all G.U.N. agents on basic forensic science, in hopes that agents will be able to perform their own evidence analyses."

"So they're making us learn a bunch of stuff just so they can give us extra work?!" said Rouge, chagrined. "I didn't sign up for this job so I could hang around in a lab! The paperwork is bad enough already."

And yet, the next evening, Shadow and Omega found themselves dragging a very disgruntled bat with them to the first meeting. She was digging in her heels with a vengeance, and even once they got her into the lecture hall, she kept muttering rebellious comments and throwing balled-up notebook pages at the agents in front of them.

At last a terse-looking gray-haired man came striding to the front of the room.

"Good afternoon, all," he said. "I am Dr. Kolin, and I will be your main instructor for this training program. Let me assure you, you will not be disappointed with the knowledge you gain here; the science of forensics is one of the most practical and beneficial things you will ever learn."

"And if we don't learn it?" grumbled Rouge from the back row, sliding down in her seat and kicking the back of the seat in front of her. The agent sitting there turned to give her an annoyed look.

"I am sure you are all familiar with the program format by now," continued Dr. Kolin. "But let me reiterate: It will be structured much like a college-level forensics course. You are expected to attend these meetings, where I will explain the concepts you need to know. However, I understand that as agents you are all very busy with training and missions. Therefore, the meetings will only be held twice a week. To compensate, you are required to perform extra readings during your free time."

Rouge, displeased with this news, stuck out her tongue and laid back her ears irately. By now Shadow was looking around for an empty seat to switch to; he always forgot that sitting next to Rouge was a bad idea.

"The most exciting part of the program, however, is probably the lab," said Dr. Kolin. "Once a week you must put the concepts you learn from lectures and readings into practice, participating in a practical forensics lab. This will allow you to get a feel for the delicate and intriguing science involved in the practice of criminal investigation. Now, before we begin, are there any questions?"

A young female agent in the front raised her hand.

"Are there going to be tests?" she asked, trying to sound casual but all the same clearly uneasy.

"Actually, yes," said Dr. Kolin. "All agents are required to pass a very basic practical examination at the end of the program, testing if they have mastered the most important concepts of forensics. Of course, we don't expect everyone to become a professional forensics master, but you must know at least the basics, or you will be required to complete the entire program again."

An ever-so-slight anxious murmur ran through the crowd, as various agents processed this news.

"There is no need to be uneasy," said Dr. Kolin cheerfully. "I am sure you will all perform adequately. And for those of you who particularly take to the subject, you may have a chance of becoming a registered forensics agent! It would be extra work, as all agents would bring their more complicated tests to you, but let me assure you, it would be a great honor."

"They've got to be _kidding,_" grumbled Rouge. "As if this whole thing wasn't _already_ extra work, now they want us to volunteer to do even _more?_ I'm gonna ask for a _raise!_"

Shadow gave her a warning look. Rouge scowled back, but eventually quailed under that dangerous red-glinting gaze and sank even farther down in her seat, muttering.

* * *

Three days later came the first lab. Shadow and Omega again had to veritably drag Rouge along with them. As everyone shuffled about and poked cautiously into their lab drawers, Rouge was already protesting.

"They've gotta be kidding," she growled, yanking a pair of goggles off her head immediately after putting them on.

"You have to wear those," said Shadow calmly.

"Not gonna. I'm not sacrificing my good looks for this nonsense. They'd leave weird marks on my forehead."

"Spill a chemical, and it'll leave weird marks on your eyeball," replied Shadow tersely.

"Psh. It's not like I'm going to be juggling the beakers," scoffed Rouge. "Besides, Omega's not wearing any goggles. Or gloves, or apron either."

Shadow, knowing a hopeless case when he saw one, refrained from pointing out that Omega was made of metal.

The lab began. Most of the agents were assigned to work in groups of two, but since there was an odd number Omega sidled carefully to a lab bench in the corner. He'd do fine on his own, he had a robotically precise idea of what he was supposed to do.

Rouge, teamed up with Shadow, wasted no time in informing him that he looked ridiculous in goggles, and at that she may have had a point. Mobians' peculiar eye shape meant that they had to wear very large and odd goggles, almost like a strangely-shaped windshield for the face. Ironically, Shadow probably needed goggles less than Rouge did; he could heal just about any part of his body, including his eyes. However, he didn't see a good reason to go through the pain and drama of getting an injury, even if he could recover from it.

This first lab was about extraction. The agents were to practice running samples through different liquid solvents, trying to seperate out the various chemicals. The samples were only for practice, but in real forensics they could use this system to identify all kinds of substances found at real crime scenes, or test drinks for poison.

The process was fairly complicated, and Rouge clearly had not read the lab manual. Soon she was pawing through a multitude of beakers, of all different sizes, all filled with identical-looking clear liquids, all of which were presumably different compounds.

"All right, you should all have finished filtering the sample containing aspirin by now," called Dr. Kolin.

"Which one is the aspirin?" growled Rouge under her breath, rattling amongst the beakers. Omega glanced over, his eyes flashing with a scan frequency.

"That one," he announced, tapping gently at the edge of the countertop closest to the beaker in question. Rouge nodded her thanks and grabbed up the beaker, setting hastily to work filtering its contents.

Presently there was a clink of glassware toppling, and a burbling splash; Rouge gave a sharp gasp. Shadow's head snapped up only for him to find Rouge frozen before her lab bench, her eyes tightly shut. A clear liquid was dripping down one side of her face, from the forehead over the eyelid, down the muzzle. Slowly she reached up and brushed her fingers gingerly over the dampened fur, feeling if it was melting or singeing or burning. Then, cautiously, she opened her unaffected eye. Shadow watched, unaware that his own eyes were wide behind his goggles, as Rouge studied the forest of glassware laid out on the lab counter.

"It's just water," she said softly at last.

Shadow closed his eyes and opened his mouth to say something. After a moment he gave up and merely sighed, lowered his eyes back to his work, and pushed a pair of goggles over to Rouge's side of the lab bench. Meekly she put them on, and kept them on for the rest of the lab. It still didn't stop her from scowling at her reflection and poking at the red line on her forehead afterwards, though.


	2. Chapter 2

Over the weekend, all the agents had to complete what Dr. Kolin called a "critical assessment"; really it was just homework. Granted though, it was pretty _hard_ homework. You had to scrounge through all the readings and your lecture notes and lab info and everything, just to figure it out.

Shadow and Omega took the extra work quietly. Neither of them was particularly excited about this entire program, since they were built for action and combat situations. Still, they stoically tolerated it, getting it out of the way with as little fuss as possible. A few people had suggested that Omega should try out the professional test at the end, since he was robotically precise in both his knowledge and his practice, but he showed no interest in becoming a full-time forensics agent. Too little gunfire for him.

"Aren't you going to work on the assessment?" asked Shadow quietly, glancing over at Rouge one afternoon. Omega was off at a side table in the rec room, methodically filling out the answers to the questions—his biggest problem was holding the pencil in his massive fingers. Shadow himself had originally been working at the table too, but now he had so many books and papers out that he had moved the whole mass to the floor. Rouge, meanwhile, was flopped on a rec room sofa, paging through a magazine. She twitched an ear annoyedly at the prospect of transferring her attention to homework.

"It's due tomorrow," continued Shadow carelessly, returning to his labors. Rouge gave an aggravated sigh, threw the magazine across the room (hitting some poor agent on the head), and gathered up her own worksheet and mass of papers. Dumping it all on the floor, she plunked down facing Shadow and began to rustle through the litter aimlessly, muttering.

At last she forced herself to start. One or two questions she found she could answer. The rest would require research. She laid her chin on her hands, surveying the still-closed forensics textbook with distaste. Man, if she'd known she'd be stuck doing _this_ when she first signed up for G.U.N. . .

Her gaze shifted across to Shadow, who was still focused on his own work, flung carelessly forward onto his elbows, his rocket shoes swinging languidly back and forth in the air. She'd seen him in a lot of different situations before. Cold and collected, almost theatrical in his subconscious knowledge of his own awesome; tense and calculating, his eyes scanning sharply over every detail of a dangerous situation; half-frozen and exhausted, still bearing his head as high as ever; enraged and deadly, radiating silent fury as blood reflected in his eyes. You got to see so many facets of his personality, when you worked with him as long as Rouge had.

It wasn't often she saw him like this, though. Right now he was unusually at ease, perhaps bored, blanked out by the meniality of paperwork. Rouge watched his eyes roving smoothly back and forth. Right now, when he was in this mood, their color reminded her ever so oddly of cherry cough drops . . . She laughed silently, wondering what Shadow would say if she told him his eyes looked like a freshly-sucked candy pill.

Shadow eventually realized he was being watched. As his eyes shifted upwards to meet Rouge's, she hastily looked back to her paperwork. He blinked at her silently for a moment, then returned to his own work.

Rouge grew more and more frustrated as she progressed through the questions; she had no patience for research. She changed position a half-dozen times, riffling listlessly through the textbook here, shuffling papers about there, never really paying attention to what was written on them.

"So," she remarked at last. "Rigor mortis sets in after two hours, right?"

"Three to four," replied Omega from across the room.

"Mm," said Rouge, pencilling down the answer. A while more of silence. Then:

"What was the name of that stuff they used for TLC again? It's on the tip of my tongue . . . "

"Omega, don't tell her anything," warned Shadow, looking up.

"Hey!" Rouge scowled. "Come on Omega, please? I'm just fact-checking, I know all the answers, honest!"

"No, you do not." Shadow continued to scratch away at his own assignment.

"I do too. And even if I didn't, so what if he told me the answers? It'd be the same as if I looked them up!"

"No, it wouldn't."

"Ohhh, don't listen to him Omega. Come on, what's the name of the stuff?"

Omega looked dubiously over at her, then at Shadow.

"I am staying out of this."

Rouge groaned angrily. Crumpling up a random piece of scratch paper, she hurled it at Shadow's head and plunged herself into the forensics textbook.

The assignment, when she handed it in, was of dubious quality. She continued to grumble all through lectures and complain about having to wear goggles in lab; Shadow quickly learned to avoid being her lab partner at all costs.

"What have you got against it?" he asked wearily, watching Rouge throwing the rec room's darts at her textbook.

"I hate it," declared Rouge, with a passion. "I have a stupid lab report due tomorrow—" (here a dart thwacked into the textbook just below the title) "—and the stupid lab manual to read—" (this time she hit dead center of the fingerprint pictured on the cover) "—and the stupid lab itself with its _stupid_ goggles—" (the "O" in "Forensics" bit the dust) "—and the stupid homework due on Monday!"

At this point she had run out of darts. Muttering, she fetched her textbook, pried it open (it was more or less stapled shut by now) and began to read grumpily, with a mass of darts still bristling from the front cover. Shadow watched her for a while, with one corner of his mouth twisted back slightly.

"You still didn't answer the question," he remarked at length. Rouge glanced up with one eye and growled, but flopped back in resignation.

"I'm always the worst at all the labs. I keep spilling stuff. I was nearly sick during the blood analysis lab. I don't understand a word of lecture. I don't understand a word of the textbook. I keep getting lowest passing grade on all the homework. And I _know_ I'm going to fail the exam at the end!"

"You'd better not," said Shadow flatly. "Team Dark's completed Rank-5 missions flawlessly, it wouldn't reflect well on us if our members couldn't pass a basic forensics course. We don't acknowledge failure. You know that."

"So what're you going to do?" scoffed Rouge. "Disown me?"

"If necessary. Omega and I have already discussed it."

"_What?!_" Rouge threw down the textbook. "Listen you, I _formed_ this team—you don't _get_ the right to kick me out!"

"Well then, we'll both quit," said Shadow. "And you can have the team to yourself."

"You wouldn't."

"Do you want to try us?"

Rouge slid down on the sofa, stewing and death glaring with one eye.

"I hate you, you know that? You and Omega both. Go ahead and disown me, fine."

"It's not like we're asking the impossible. You could do reasonably well in the course if you just tried a little harder, and you know that."

"I don't wanna."

"Why not? For the last time, what have you got against it?"

"Ahh, I dunno." Rouge folded her arms and looked away, scowling. Shadow waited patiently. At length the expectant silence worked its way under Rouge's skin, and she blew out an angry breath. "Look, I really don't know. I guess . . . " Her voice dropped a little. "I guess I'm used to being good at stuff."

Shadow said nothing for a moment. It was true, most things came effortlessly for Rouge. Struggling at anything must have been a significant blow to her pride.

"You could still do better if you really tried," he ventured at last.

"Shut up," growled Rouge, picking up the textbook and burying herself in it again. Shadow shook his head resignedly. He supposed that someone like Amy or Sonic would know how to say something cheering here, but that was one of the few areas _he_ struggled in.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, Rouge stormed into HQ and slammed the door behind her. Shadow raised an eyebrow at her quietly from his spot down the hall, where he was waiting for the lab doors to open.

"I don't believe it!" growled Rouge.

"Labs do occur at regularly scheduled intervals," said Shadow blandly. "I fail to see how it manages to be surprising."

"It's not the lab!" Rouge glowered. "I've been robbed!"

"Oh?" Shadow looked up. "_You_ were robbed?"

"Don't you smirk at me!" warned Rouge—and there _was _something ever so slightly like amusement in Shadow's eyes. It wasn't every day that Rouge was the one being stolen _from_.

"So what did they take?"

"One of my favorite jewels, that's what!" seethed Rouge. "A really rare heart-shaped beryl. It's unbelievable, what they'll make off with!"

"Of course, no doubt you got it from a friend," said Shadow drily.

"Actually, I did," retorted Rouge, assuming an air of lofty righteousness. "It was from my cousin in Adabat."

"Naturally," said Shadow under his breath. "So then, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to call Team Chaotix," scowled Rouge. "They'll know what to do about it."

Rouge was distracted all through lab, and wound up doing even more poorly than usual. Dr. Kolin was beginning to look a bit disgruntled with her. Ignoring that collateral, Rouge bolted from the lab as soon as possible, heading out to call the local detective team. Shadow and Omega glanced at each other, then followed. This promised to be interesting.

* * *

Team Chaotix shuffled cautiously around the scene of the crime, poking at things and trying to look extra-professional. The jewel in question had been sitting on a little pillow on a side table, but the pillow was now empty. A smashed vase lay on the floor, presumably having been knocked off the table in the midst of the heist.

"So you say the door was locked as usual when you came in this morning?" said Vector, stroking his chin.

"Not a sign of tampering," said Rouge firmly. "I can tell. They must have come in through the window—I left it open a crack to let fresh air in overnight."

"But it's the second floor," said Espio. He peered out the still slightly-opened window. "There's a tree outside, but the only branches that come close to the window are much too thin to support anyone. It must have been someone who could fly."

"Or climb walls," added Vector.

"Perhaps, but even an expert wall-climber would probably not be able to gain enough leverage to push open the window from the outside," said Espio, shaking his head.

For a while there was silence, as Team Chaotix circled around some more.

"Ohhhhhhh!" cried Charmy suddenly. "There's blood!"

"Wh-what?" asked Rouge, starting. "I didn't see any—"

"It's only a little," said Espio grimly, crouching down to examine the small spot Charmy had found on the carpet. "But it's blood all right. The thief must have cut himself or herself on the broken vase while leaving."

"Well, that's great then!" said Rouge, brightening. "You can just run a DNA test on it, right? And I bet they touched the window a whole lot while opening it and sliding it back to its original position, you can test it for fingerprints!"

"Well . . . yeahhhhh, kind of," said Vector uneasily, rubbing the back of his head.

"'Kind of'? What do you mean, 'kind of'?"

"Well ya see, our little agency doesn't really have those kinds of capabilities. DNA testing is high-tech stuff, and fingerprint huntin' usually means you've gotta have a whole database of criminal fingerprints to check against. We can dust for the fingerprints an' all, but we'd have to send all the samples of 'em, and the blood, to a lab for testing."

"Okay then, that's no problem," shrugged Rouge. "As long as the lab knows what it's doing."

"It'd be extra expense, though," said Vector, twiddling his fingers uncomfortably.

"How much?" Rouge gave him a sharp look. When Vector named the price, she snorted furiously.

"Are you kidding me?! That's almost as much as the jewel itself was worth!"

"Wellll, lab work's expensive," mumbled Vector.

Rouge tossed her head.

"Listen here, wise guys, everyone in G.U.N. is doing the exact same lab work for free these days—I'm not paying that much for the same result!"

Team Chaotix's members exchanged glum looks, but Rouge was adamant.

"Fine, that settles it. All right boys, thanks much, but I think that's all I'm going to be needing. How much do I owe you for today?"

Once she'd managed to shoo the detectives off, Rouge sighed resignedly and glanced at Shadow, who was watching blandly from the kitchen.

"I don't suppose you'd—"

"No."

"Aww, come on. Just a few quick tests!"

"It's your jewel, you're in the same course, and it was your choice not to pay for professional lab work. _You_ run the tests."

Rouge was not amused. She went all around G.U.N., wheedling all the agents she was acquainted with to run the forensics tests for her on the side—but everywhere she got the same answer as Shadow's. Not only that, everyone seemed to be unusually resistant to sweet-talking, perhaps because they didn't exactly enjoy the forensics course themselves. Even Omega, although Rouge threatened him with a few things she knew, insisted that it would be unfair to perform for free the work that Team Chaotix asked money for.

In the end Rouge was left with no options. Nobody was willing to perform the tests for her without charging, and she wasn't one to eat crow and ask Team Chaotix to contact the professional lab after all. So, with much grumbling and cursing, she attempted to complete the tests herself.

She didn't exactly know how. In the end, wary of screwing up the evidence, she grudgingly pulled out the textbook and looked up how to dust for fingerprints and take DNA tests on blood. While she was snipping off the stained piece of carpet, she also found some unusual sandy-brown hairs that didn't belong to anyone she knew. Those she also decided to run tests on. Team Chaotix had trampled up the carpeting pretty thoroughly while investigating, but she had glimpsed a chapter in the textbook about footprint analysis, and thus entertained hopes that she might be able to discern some of the thief's footprints yet.

It didn't go well. She scrounged with one test and another for a while, floundered, and gave up. Eventually she got to thinking about that missing jewel again—it was one of her favorites, too—and took to poking half-heartedly at the textbook once more. Soon she was doggedly back at it and looking like she intended to finish this time.

"Going out?" asked a fellow-agent casually, as Team Dark signed off duty at midnight one night.

"Can't," said Rouge grumpily. "I have to run ten million analyses of the stupid DNA samples, all by hand, one at a time. It'll probably take me all _night_. Seeing as I'm doing it all _alone._" She glared meaningfully at Shadow, who merely rolled his eyes at the ceiling.

"You're breaking my heart."

Still, while heading to bed a few hours later, he passed the forensics lab on his way to his room and found that Rouge hadn't been exaggerating after all—there was a light still burning inside. Pushing open the door cautiously, he found Rouge sitting on the floor and slouched back against a wall of lab drawers, asleep with a micropipette still dangling loosely from her fingers.

"Rouge." He prodded her in the shoulder gently. "Rouge, you can't sleep here, it's not safe."

"Mmmmph. Agh?!" Rouge started awake. Shadow caught the micropipette before it bit the dust and pulled her to her feet, shaking his head seriously.

"Go to bed, Rouge. You're in no condition to make it home, you can stay in Topper's room. He's out in Apatos for a weeklong."

"Cannn't," slurred Rouge, trying to rub one eye and cursing groggily when her goggles got in the way. She shook her head out and came awake more fully. "Ugh. No, I can't go to bed. Still have to run all the tests, they'll go bad overnight."

Rattling her head back and forth again, she yawned and stretched, then turned mechanically back to her lab bench. Shadow shrugged and headed out of the lab. Still, he paused at the door and glanced back, shifting from foot to foot slightly and eyeing the clutter of test tube racks that Rouge apparently still had to get through.

Eventually he stepped over and slipped on a pair of goggles resignedly.

"Toss me a pipette. I'll do a few of them for you. A _few._"

Rouge silently handed him a pipette and one of the test tube racks, but her eyes said something about gratitude.


	4. Chapter 4

A week slipped by, then two. Rouge continued to slug grimly away at the tests; every now and then, Shadow or Omega would help her just a little with the busywork, but only when Rouge herself had already chosen the procedure and learned how to do it.

Finally, Rouge came exploding into the rec room one morning, looking gleeful.

"I've got it!" she whooped. "I found the thief's identity! It's Caddie!"

"Wait, the new agent?" said Shadow, looking up.

"Yup!" Rouge waved a bundle of printouts in Shadow's general direction. "I might have known. I took that Caddie over to my place to learn lockpicking when she first got here and I was showing her the ropes, and I bet she set her greedy little sights on my fam'ly jewel! Boy, I'm going to give her something to think about. And here she was acting all innocent and normal around me all this time!"

She turned to storm out the door.

"Hang in there," warned Shadow. "You can't just sail off and accuse someone like that. Are you sure your tests are accurate?"

"Oh, positive!" said Rouge confidently.

"But what about the window? Espio said nobody could have gotten in unless they could fly."

"Ladder, hun," retorted Rouge, rolling her eyes.

"There were no ladder marks under the window."

"Fine then, a grappling hook!"

"There were no grappling marks on the windowsill."

"Why are you so hung up on defending Caddie?" Rouge folded her arms. "I _know_ what my tests say. You got any better ideas?"

Shadow shrugged uneasily. Omega looked over from where he was codewashing a spy bug.

"Analyzing all possible scenarios presented by the environment," he intoned, "the possibility of a squirrel presents itself."

"The _what_ of a _what?_" Rouge looked at him blankly.

"A squirrel," said Shadow, picking up the thread. "That's a good point, actually. A squirrel might have been interested in a shiny object like that jewel. And it could easily have run along those thin branches that led right up to the window, and slipped in through the crack. You never did find any fingerprints besides your own, remember? Maybe the thief didn't wear gloves, maybe he just didn't touch the window at all because he was tiny."

"And so the squirrel knocked over that vase while it was stealing my jewel?" Rouge pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Well, I suppose a squirrel wouldn't know to be careful like a proper burglar. That would make sense."

"There you go," said Shadow.

"But the tests, then?" said Rouge, waving the printouts again. "How do you account for the tests?"

"Did you check the DNA against squirrels?"

"Well . . . nooooo . . . I only did human DNA comparison. Didn't think to test for squirrel blood, for Pete's sake."

"Understandably," said Omega seriously. "However, it is possible that the DNA is in fact a squirrel's, and Agent Caddie's DNA is simply the closest human equivalent. Squirrel blood could be mistaken for human blood, through a small misinterpretation."

"Of course, of course," said Rouge, nodding. "It all makes sense now. So then what do I do, put up a reward for capture of squirrel with large jewel?"

"It may not be necessary," shrugged Shadow. "If it saw your jewel through the window, it was probably a local squirrel. It might even have lived in that tree by the window. Is there a squirrel nest in that tree?"

"I don't know, we could check," said Rouge. Shadow shrugged and got up to start for Rouge's house.

"Or," continued Rouge, "we could do it the easy way, and you could just give me back the jewel now."

Shadow stopped and turned to look at her blankly. She swung from foot to foot, her expression coldly patient.

"Don't fake disbelief," she ordered at last. "Exactly how stupid do you think I am?"

Shadow winced and glanced at Omega, who looked like he would very much like to power down and escape this situation.

"If you've lost it, I'm going to be extremely ticked," continued Rouge. "Give it over now, or I'll ransack your quarters."

Shadow looked like he was going to protest absurdity for a moment, but then he gave up, sighed, and held out one hand resignedly.

"All right. Let's have it, Omega."

Wordlessly Omega slid open one of his internal compartments, the one where he sometimes stored Chaos Emeralds. Carefully he picked out the missing heart-shaped jewel and handed it to Shadow, who handed it silently to Rouge in turn.

"So, it was with Omega all along," said Rouge flatly. "While I was staying up till four in the morning trying to figure out who had taken it."

Shadow shrugged slightly, not looking up. Omega, his role in the tableau finished, retracted the compartment and rapidly powered down. He earned a dirty look from the abandoned Shadow, but Rouge was entirely focused on the hedgehog anyway. She had a pretty good idea of who the mastermind was.

"Real clever," she said tightly, folding her arms. "Reeeeeal cunning of you two. I see just what you did. Chaos Controlled into my house, swiped my jewel, and tried to pin the crime on a squirrel to save your own hide, eh?"

"Did you figure that out all by yourself?" asked Shadow drily.

"Yes, actually. Just now, when the test told me for the thousandth time that it _wasn't_ human DNA. I suppose you sacrificed some innocent squirrel for that blood?"

"No. We used the samples from a wildlife forensics kit."

"Well that's just great," drawled Rouge. "So you've had your fun, and no squirrels got hurt, is that it? Nice to know that no _squirrels_ suffered because you were bored and fancied a stunt. Pity the _squirrels._"

"We needed to get you invested in learning forensics," replied Shadow, meeting Rouge's glare defiantly. "Nothing else worked, so we decided that having one of your jewels on the line would be a suitable incentive."

"And who asked you?" The question was deathly calm.

"Nobody. We assessed the situation and took the initiative."

The answer was deathly calm too—but it far from satisfied Rouge. Her eyes were narrowed by now, her head tilting forward and her wings and ears folding back. Faced with a stance all too similar to his own characteristic aggression display, Shadow didn't flinch.

"You were _going_ to _fail_. Team Dark does not fail."

"Oh?" Rouge drew back, her eyes blazing. "Don't they?"

"Get a hold of yourself. You have your jewel back, and at least now you'll be able to pass the final exam."

Rouge snorted scornfully and turned away.

"Maybe I'll fail it. Just to spite you."

"_Rouge!_"

The door slammed. Shadow twitched slightly at the sound and glared in that direction, but soon sighed and turned away resignedly to thump a fist against Omega's side.

"She's gone. You can wake up now, Benedict Arnold."


	5. Chapter 5

**Last chapter! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed! You guys are amazing. ^_^**

* * *

The course ended a week later. As the very last task, all agents were expected to clear out their lab drawers, make sure their equipment was clean, undamaged, and accounted for, and take it all to the stockroom for storage or future use. They all put on their goggles and aprons one last time, and the lab soon chattered with the clinking of glass on glass as agents rummaged through their equipment. Shadow and Rouge worked side by side on their respective drawers, not looking at each other.

"So then," said Shadow at length, keeping his focus on the beaker he was brushing clean. "I take it you passed the final exam."

Rouge shrugged and tossed a fingerprint kit carelessly into the carrying crate.

"Nope."

Shadow fumbled the beaker and nearly dropped it.

"Didn't even take it," continued Rouge calmly.

Shadow said nothing, but turned away and returned to scrubbing the beaker.

"Well?" said Rouge after a moment, rolling her eyes. "Arencha gonna disown me?"

"It's your life," said Shadow coldly. "Screw it up if you want to. You hated the forensics course. Now you can take it again."

There was something unmistakably bitter in his voice. Rouge's expression softened slightly.

"Come on. Seriously? Don't tell me that you and Omega really did go through all those threats and trouble just to save me from taking the course again."

Shadow gave no acknowledgement that he had heard her. Rouge studied him for a moment, then turned back to her lab drawer and pulled out a random watchglass. Running her finger thoughtfully along its edge, she considered her next move.

"You know," she said, almost to herself. "They have a different exam for agents who want to go professional."

She didn't look up, but she felt Shadow's gaze sliding onto her. For a moment she continued intently tracing the smooth curve of the watchglass, but eventually a grin crept across her muzzle and she couldn't resist glancing in Shadow's direction.

"Top marks."

The briefest hint of a mirroring grin flashed across Shadow's face before he could catch it. Almost immediately he shoved it down and turned back to his work, looking entirely nonchalant.

"Congratulations."

"Mm," replied Rouge.

They finished clearing out their equipment at almost the same time, and wound up placing their crates side-by-side in the stockroom.

"Why?" asked Shadow abruptly. "You hated forensics. Why'd you get yourself stuck with it permanently?"

Rouge shrugged, brushing imaginary dust from the shelf to avoid having to look up.

"Well . . . when I had to do the analyses for real, you know? Not just stupid fake examples following the lab instructions—I liked it. A lot. It's like a puzzle or a game, you have to match wits with the suspect."

"Hmh," said Shadow, and leaned back against a delivery box of filter paper. Rouge heaved a resigned sigh.

"Yeah. I know. I was wrong and you and Omega were right, I should have listened to you in the first place, and—" she seemed to physically choke on it "—and you completely fooled me, and it served me right."

Shadow's ears swiveled.

"It's not like we were trying to get a rise out of you," he said at last. Rouge chuckled ironically.

Well, truth be told, it had crossed his mind a little. He'd been a long-suffering victim of Rouge's playful nature, and she was endlessly fond of reminding him of all the times she'd managed to make a fool of him. He'd ever so slightly been anticipating a chance to have one over on her, for a change, just once.

Somehow, though, the victory seemed a little hollow now. He glanced at Rouge's sagging ears and suddenly felt there was something inherently wrong with that.

"Look, forget it," he said, straightening up. "It's over with, you don't have to mope about it. We're—" He swallowed. "We weren't intending to make it that hard for you. We just wanted to help. Really."

"Relax, I'll recover," said Rouge, smiling ruefully.

There was an abrupt clack of plastic against plastic. Caught unawares, Rouge looked up and found Shadow prying off his goggles gingerly, rubbing at the area where a rough edge had dug into his temple.

"I begin to see what you mean about hating goggles," he mumbled. Rouge considered, then smirked and pushed her own goggles up onto her forehead.

"Let's try that again. "


End file.
